Gertrude Jekyll’s Family Line Over 500 Years

The Jekyll family line from which Gertrude Jekyll was descended can be traced back 13 generations; the name is probably of Danish origin. Down the years, the family were lawyers, clergymen, bankers, merchants, soldiers, sailors and servants of the British crown. The family historian, Sir Herbert Jekyll (1846-1932), was Gertrude’s younger brother. He was a military engineer and civil servant, a man of great talent over a wide area, ranging from founding the Bach Choir in London and laying telegraph lines in Africa to designing the road network from London and master-minding the British Pavilion, with Edwin Lutyens, at the Paris Exhibition of 1900.